Just a Conservative musing, raving, and joking

As we speak, four men are in custody that Fate tied together. One, a known, wanted terrorist who’s known crimes against Americans are too gruesome to even describe on the nightly news. The other three are members of one of the most esteemed, honorable, and lauded military organizations ever created. In a time of war against Muslim terrorists, common sense would dictate that justice would be on the side of those fighting on our behalf. Logic would use the history of actions committed by terrorists, both on the battlefield and in custody, to predict the behavior of one that has been captured. Patriotism and belief in the justness of the cause for which we fight would combine to give our soldiers a wide berth when dealing with our enemies.

None of these are being implemented in the case against Matthew McCabe, Julio Huertas, Jr, and Jonathan Keefe. These three courageous boys are members of SEAL Team 10, and had been among those to capture Ahmed Hashim Abed. Abed remains a captured al Qaeda terrorist, wanted for the slaying of four Blackwater security contractors (and former commandos themselves) in a most heinous fashion. These three SEALs are being charged with either abusing Abed, or covering up the abuse.

A poll of 100 random Americans, if shown the pictures of the charred bodies of four of our citizens hanging from a bridge, would find 99 of them volunteering to “abuse” Abed. I would count myself among them. Abed does not possess the sense of decency we do. He could have held the Blackwater members captive, fed, clothed, and cared for their medical needs – as we do – in a comfortable cell. He showed no such compassion. He murdered them, burned their bodies, then dragged their charred remains through the streets among cheering crowds. Since that did not satisfy his evil desires, he then hung the bodies from a bridge to be played with by locals (including children) and called several news agencies to take pictures such as this one.

In capturing Abed, who was armed at the time of his capture, no SEAL harmed him. At that time, they could have, or even shot him, but they didn’t. He was also initially turned over to Iraqi police. It was back in U.S. custody that the alleged “abuse” occurred. It is also well known that al Qaeda training manuals instruct terrorists to claim abuse while in custody, even to the point of self-inflicting wounds as “evidence”. Abed’s word should mean nothing. The government has not released photographs or video of the injuries (it is undergoing “classification review”), and balked at allowing our soldiers to directly face him at their courts-martial. The government has also delayed the case, presumably because the only credible witness to the abuse, a third class master-at-arms, can’t seem to get his story straight. At least five different statements by the unnamed sailor have been made and appear to conflict with each other.

The SEALS initially were faced with an Article 15 “Captains Mast”, which is a non-judicial proceeding by their commanding officer. All three declined as it is viewed as an admission of guilt. These soldiers wanted their day in court knowing that a guilty verdict in a courts-martial will carry a harsher sentence. Guilty people try to find a way to avoid harsh sentences, innocent people want to clear their name.

When boiled down to the nutshell version, this smells like a witch hunt. Why the master-at-arms is lying is anyone’s guess at this point, but people telling the truth don’t give conflicting statements, though they may add or delete details as time progresses. The bigger question, however, is why does anyone care about the alleged “abuse” of this piece-of-trash? Americans don’t care. At least 40 Congressmen don’t care. In the wake of Abu-Ghraib, I can understand some heightened sensitivity toward claims of abuse, but also understand that everyone in the military does not want a repeat of those actions. Our soldiers are going out of their way, and often being put in harms way, to avoid harming prisoners of war. I have also had the honor of knowing many Navy SEALS, these men do NOT lie to their commanding officers. They are among the most honorable people I have ever met. In other words, I would take the word of one SEAL over the word of 10 masters-at-arms and 1,000 terrorists. When three SEALS tell the same story, only the direct Word of God could convince me they are lying.

And Abed’s “abuse”, seriously, is merely a punch in the stomach. It is in their charge-sheets. So apparently on top of being a complete waste of carbon, Abed also lacks the intestinal fortitude to injure himself properly or thoroughly.

The SEALS still need our help. For more information on how you can help, and more details on this case, please go here. They have sacrificed so much for us, the least we can do for them is write a letter or make a phone call. For these three men to even stand trial is the greatest travesty of justice I have ever witnessed.

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,

building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

And now for the MODERN version…

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’

Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant ‘s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’

Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back ofthe grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

Although Congress suspended ACORN’s federal funding and the Census Bureau and IRS severed ties with ACORN, the scandalized community organizing group could once again receive taxpayer dollars – and soon. In addition, the federal government is allegedly still sending money to ACORN through back channels.

In September, both houses of Congress voted to strip ACORN’s funding. However Congress was unable to pass their annual appropriations bills by the October 1 deadline. The Continuing Resolution signed by President Barack Obama holds government spending at current levels until Congress can pass the 12 appropriations bills. The current resolution is in effect until October 31. Once the bills are passed, ACORN could once again be eligible for billions in federal taxpayer funds.

In other words, every appropriations bill must specifically deny funding for ACORN in order for federal funding to cease.

Meanwhile, the government had to become increasingly creative in their efforts to fund the group. Just two weeks after Congress suspended funds to the group, the Washington Times reported that the Department of Homeland Security awarded the ACORN Institute, ACORN’s non-profit affiliate, just under $1 million in grant money intended for fire departments. ACORN would not explain how the grant money would be used.

It now appears that the grant money is no longer destined for ACORN. But last year, the group allegedly received nearly $500,000 – over half of the grant money meant for Louisiana fire departments.

“ACORN Institute is one of the myriad of nonprofit organizations that function with the express purpose of sending funds to ACORN through Citizens Consulting Inc. (CCI),” Anita MonCrief, a former employee of ACORN, told The US Report. Since leaving the group, MonCrief has exposed the corrupt inner-workings of ACORN.

MonCrief alleged: “During my time at ACORN I saw that ACORN Institute would apply for grants from charitable organizations that only gave to tax-exempt nonprofits, but the work described in the grant could only be done by ACORN. Like Project Vote, ACORN Institute would then ‘contract’ with ACORN to complete the promised projects. Also ACORN institute provides a way for wealthy donors like George Soros and Herb Sandler to give to ACORN and still receive a tax credit.”

In June, ACORN and its affiliated groups filed a lawsuit against Moncrief. Last week thedefense fund Fight for Anita was formed to help MonCrief with the expensive legal fees and preserve her First Amendment rights.

If the government determined that ACORN was no longer worthy to receive taxpayer funding, they would have slammed the door shut on the group. But without pressure from taxpayers, the Democrat leadership will likely continue to fund and provide cover for ACORN.

One Thousand Five Hundred and Two Pages. The Senate Finance Committee’s Health Care Bill has finally been unveiled. [Ed – If you care to do something almost no Senator will do, you can read it here. Of course, I don’t recommend printing it out, you’ll go through three full reams plus two annoying extra sheets, and the Sierra Club is notified when any citizen purchases more than two reams of paper per year.].

Upon release of this bill, Nancy Pelosi “looked shocked,” according to unnamed sources close to the Speaker adding, “of course, she kinda always looks shocked, so I’m not sure it was the bill.” Barbara Boxer was seen throwing a fit and ranting about the Finance Committee just “showing off,” and that the bill would never be accepted because it was written by “a bunch of white people.” At least, those were the words we could print.

Charles Schumer, upon hearing about the released bill, ran over two congressional pages and one little old lady from Lincoln, NE to tell CNN how please he was with their “bi-partisan achievement.” John Kerry, asked to comment as well, mumbled something unintelligible before falling back to sleep. We looked for Olympia Snowe, who was believed to be hiding in the men’s room, but we were unable to confirm that report.

Our intrepid Washington reporters will bring you additional information, as it becomes available.

A suicide bomber killed 31 people today, including five or six senior members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Among the remaining dead were other Guard members, or local tribal leaders, and several dozen others were wounded. The story can be found here and here. Besides the Iranian leadership getting a small dose of their own medicine, what was really interesting is that Reuters quoted the Fars News Agency as blaming the bombing on terrorists backed by “the Great Satan America and its ally Britain,” even though a local Sunni group called Jundollah (God’s soldiers), claimed responsibility. According to Fars, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces claimed Obama is backing the Jundollah in an effort to cause instability in the region.

Not in the distant future, we [Iran] will take revenge…

Of course, our State Department denies any involvement and condemned the attack.

Reports of alleged U.S. involvement are completely false.

Is this what Vice President Biden was talking about when he said the world would test Obama? Probably not. It will however damage the talks in Vienna due to begin tomorrow. We know this because we can use what we know of Iran’s leadership (i.e. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is flippin’ crazy) to come up with an educated guess of their intentions. While I would not doubt Ahmadinejad is capable of hiring a bomber to kill his own people in a publicity stunt, and you must admit – the timing is perfect, whether he did or not is irrelevant. He will use this to his advantage in two ways. One, it will give him a reason to delay, cancel, or otherwise disrupt the talks being held to reign in Iran’s nuclear arms program. Claiming one of the nations at the table just killed some of your crew will put a damper on negotiations. Oh, to be a fly on the wall. Two, he will also use this to foster additional hatred against the West, and America in particular. This will make it easier to drum up popular support for an all out war against us, should Obama do what is necessary to eliminate the threat posed by a nuclear armed Iran.

Since Iran’s army is a bit lower class than Saddam’s army, the fight – if you could call it that – would be over quickly, even with Obama’s ridiculous changes to our rules of engagement. But Ahmadinejad doesn’t need to engage us directly. He could easily use this as a recruiting tool to find hundreds, if not thousands, of suicide bombers to send against our interests in the Middle East, or against us directly back home. I picture something like every Iranian driven cab in New York City blowing up simultaneously during rush hour…which would be almost all of them.

Any country crazy enough to lie to their population about the origins of a terrorist attack, to drive them into a frenzy against the most powerful country in the world either deserves the smackdown we would give them, or has an ace up their sleeve. I trust Ahmadinejad about as far as I can throw a pregnant camel, but at least we can be sure of one thing: Obama had nothing to do with this bombing. How do I know that? If he had a suicide bomber at his disposal, and had the balls to use him, I think his target would be something much more prescient…like the Fox News Building.